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Trump Tweets Flag Burning Should Be Illegal

A debate against Ted Cruz, with Donald Trump absent, would provide John Kasich with a ton of prime-time exposure. So why did he bail? (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Fox News announced that it would be canceling a Republican presidential debate, scheduled for Monday, March 21 in Salt Lake City, due to the withdrawals of Donald Trump and then John Kasich. “We had hoped to contrast Governor Kasich’s positive inclusive approach to problem solving with Trump’s campaign of division,” said John Weaver, Kasich’s chief strategist. But that’s nonsense. Kasich bailed because he knew that, one-on-one, Ted Cruz would hammer Kasich on his numerous deviations from conservative principle, especially on the touchstone issue of Obamacare.

Fox News made the wrong decision

Fox News justified its decision to cancel the debate by saying that it wasn’t worth it to simply have two hours of airtime for Ted Cruz, without Kasich or Trump present. But the opposite is true. It’s manifestly in the public interest for there to be more debates between Trump, Cruz, and Kasich. And the only way to give Trump and Kasich an incentive to show up at future debates is to reward Cruz for his sole willingness to participate.

Fox and other networks have been willing to give each candidate an hour of solo time in the town hall format. Would it be so hard to question Cruz for two hours? There are more than enough challenging questions to ask Sen. Cruz to fill that time frame. But Fox clearly believed that two hours of Cruz wasn’t worth it from a ratings standpoint, regardless of the public interest. (According to Fox's Brit Hume and Bret Baier, Fox offered Cruz a single hour of airtime in a town hall setting, and Cruz declined.)

Donald Trump withdrew from the Utah debate, citing a conflict with a scheduled appearance before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Kasich withdrew thereafter, citing Trump’s absence as the reason.

On its face, this makes no sense. Kasich routinely complains that he hasn’t gotten enough attention from the media. A debate against Ted Cruz, with Donald Trump absent, would provide him with a ton of prime-time exposure. But Kasich knew that in a one-on-one debate with Ted Cruz, the former Princeton debating champion, Kasich would be held accountable for his forays into Bernie Sanders-style healthcare.

Kasich has embraced Obamacare’s most aggressive efforts to expand government-run health care in Ohio, so much so that few of the other Republican candidates took him seriously as a competitor.

Much like a contestant on CBS’ Survivor, Kasich has remained in the race by avoiding conflict with the other candidates. But that conflict can be avoided no longer. Kasich has to explain to Republican voters why he thinks that Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid is so terrific. And to the degree that Fox News believes that its mission is to act in the public interest, Fox should push Kasich to do so.